The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 123 
the north end of the island, while the Razorbills and Guillemots 
chiefly occupy its western and south-western cliffs, and the large 
rocks standing out in the water to the south. On Skomer, 
where their numbers are marvellous, the Puffins are distributed 
all over the island, and there is scarcely a yard of ground free 
from them, so that we were both surprised and amused by 
coming on them at the least expected places. In walking 
over the island every now and again, our feet would slip through 
into a Puffin’s burrow, and sometimes, we fear, we sadly dis- 
composed the bird sitting within upon her egg. The Rev. C. 
M. Phelps has remarked that the eggs of the Skomer Puffins are 
very fine, and, in some cases, unusually richly marked. The 
same characteristic would seem to apply to the Puffins eggs 
from any part of the Welsh coast, as some we obtained from the 
neighbourhood of Barmouth, in North Wales, are very hand- 
some, being of a pure white, and sparsely dotted over with grey 
patches. The average Puffin egg is a dirty white egg, far from 
ornamental in one’s cabinet. We had frequently been informed 
by friends of the vast numbers of Puffins that inhabited Skomer, 
but from their descriptions we were but little prepared for 
what we actually saw. As our boat approached the island we 
first came upon an immense mass of birds upon the water, that 
proved to be acre upon acre of Puffins ; flocks were continually 
arriving, and others leaving the main body, and all over the 
surface of the sea there were smaller flocks. As we drew near 
to the shore we found the cliffs in front of us so thickly covered 
by Puffins as to look as if they were sprinkled with snow, and 
the air was thick with single Puffins flying off the water with 
ribbands of fish hanging from their mandibles, on their way to 
feed the young in their burrows. The birds were ridiculously 
tame, and when we landed, and were close to them, took but 
slight heed of us, only fixing their little round eyes upon us, 
and seeming to sit a little more upright upon the rocks. But 
there was a continual movement amongst them of those 
arriving and departing, and sitting down among the fern we for 
some time watched the wonderful scene, and as we remained 
